SHON ENOUGH: The Nets’ MarShon Brooks (left, against the Heat’s Ray Allen) is performing well offensively, but must pick up his game on the defensive side of the ball Photo: AP

MarShon Brooks was one of the stars of Friday night’s third episode of “The Association,” NBA TV’s reality show that is spending the year with the Nets.

Although plenty of praise was given to Brooks’ offensive abilities, the bigger focus was on his defensive shortcomings.

“I heard about it,” Brooks said with a smile before Friday night’s 107-68 blowout win over the Magic in Orlando.

Brooks had an immediate impact as a rookie last season, because of his terrific scoring talent. Given the lack of offensive options the Nets had at their disposal a year ago with Brook Lopez injured, Brooks became the team’s clear second option every night behind star point guard Deron Williams.

That left Brooks in the same position he was at Providence, where he was the team’s go-to guy on offense and, by extension, didn’t have to play defense in order to stay on the floor.

Though his offensive skills were put on display during Friday’s episode, his defensive deficiencies were made apparent, including in a scene where a mistake on the defensive end is pointed out in front of the entire team during a film session.

“He’s been an offensive player his whole life,” veteran shooting guard Keith Bogans said. “But now, he’s got to play on both ends, because everybody can play. He’s still learning.

“Last year, we didn’t have a good team, so he came into a bad situation and didn’t play any defense. Now we’ve got three guys that are going to get the ball every time down the floor, so he’s got to play D, and then he’ll get rewarded at the other end.”

In many ways, Bogans and Brooks are polar opposites. Bogans was a second-round pick who has forged a long and productive NBA career through being a spot-up 3-point shooter and by being a quality defender, while Brooks was a first-round pick in last year’s draft and is known only for his offensive ability. That’s why the 10-year veteran has taken it upon himself to try and help Brooks improve at the defensive end.

“I’m helping him as much as I can,” said Bogans, who added he has seen improvement from Brooks defensively this season. “When we first started, I told him that he’s so athletic on the offensive end, I’m going to do what I can to pick up his game on the defensive end.”

And while defense is considered to be mostly about effort, Bogans said there also are a lot of components that go into it that a young player like Brooks needs to learn to be more successful.

“It’s definitely an effort thing, but then you’ve got to know what you’re doing,” Bogans said. “You can give the effort, but then not know what you’re doing and screw everybody up, so you’ve got to know what you’re doing and give the effort.”

For his part, Brooks admitted it’s troubling knowing teams come into games thinking that when he’s on the floor, he’s the weak link in the defense they need to exploit.

“Yeah, of course,” he said. “It’s not fun when the other team is trying to go at you,” Brooks said. “… It’s something that I’m working on.

“I understand that the other team is trying to go at me because they think I’m the weakest defender on the floor or whatever the case may be … but “This year I feel like I’ve been doing a better job of keeping the ball in front of me. I’ve just got to work on paying attention to details, knowing when the screen is coming, things like that.”